Name: OpenClaw Guardian
Author: LeoYeAI

What breaks without openclaw watchdog reliability

Silent crashes. No automatic recovery. Delayed user-reported downtime.

→

Automatic crash recovery × watchdog service ÷ 15-minute setup ÷ no manual restarts = zero-downtime bot operations.

openclaw watchdog reliability — what it actually does

Detects OpenClaw instance failures via health check polling.

Automatically restarts failed instances with configurable retry backoff.

Sends alerts to configured channels when failures and restarts occur.

Logs all failure events and restart actions for post-incident review.

Works alongside systemd or Docker restart policies as an additional layer.

Security check — openclaw watchdog reliability

Privacy score: 7/10 — accesses connected platform APIs only. Lock it: review OAuth scopes before install, confirm Linux; OpenClaw ≥1.1; requires systemd, Docker, or PM2 for restart compatibility.

Quick start — openclaw watchdog reliability in 15–30 minutes

Setup time: 15–30 minutes

You need:

OpenClaw core running
systemd or Docker (for restart support)

Install the package:

npm install openclaw-guardian

Install the guardian plugin\n2. Configure health check interval and failure thresholds in guardian.config.js\n3. Set restart strategy (systemd, docker, pm2)\n4. Register as an OpenClaw plugin\n5. Simulate a failure to test automatic recovery\n6. Check alert notifications for failure events

Troubleshooting openclaw watchdog reliability

1. Setting too-aggressive restart intervals — causes restart storms\n2. Not configuring failure notifications — you won't know when restarts happen\n3. Ignoring root cause analysis — guardian masks recurring failures